Diana Bishop, a descendent of Bridget Bishop of Salem, had sworn off witchcraft after her parents were murdered in Africa under the suspicions of being witches when she was 7 years old. A tenured 35-year-old professor teaching in Oxford, Diana was working in the Bodleian Library on her key-note address on the topic of alchemy when she inadvertently opens an archaic manuscript that no witch has been powerful enough to call upon in centuries. Overnight, Diana’s life is threatened as the three groups of preternatural creatures (demons, vampires, and witches) will stop at nothing to get their hands on the book. Under the protection of another Oxford professor – the vampire Matthew Clairmont – Diana embarks on the greatest discovery of their kind.

Paranormal Identity Crisis:

In my opinion, A Discovery of Witches suffers from an identity crisis. What is it? A love story or a paranormal conspiracy-theory-type mystery? On the one hand, it’s basically a very adult, very grown-up Twilight, where instead of students in high school, Diana and Matthew are professors at Oxford. Instead of dates at the movie theatre, on the beach, or in a meadow, we have yoga, teatime in England, and dancing at a French chateau. The audiobook aspires to that same Twilight feeling – the chaste love affair of two star-crossed lovers who should never be together, but fall for each other early on in the story and spend a good deal of the rest of it kissing, hugging, and nothing more. On the other hand, A Discovery of Witches aspires to also be a mystery/thriller a la The Da Vinci Code. Again, the plot centers on this incredible discovery that Diana, a professor with special powers, is on the verge of splitting wide open that can change the direction of the way creatures (demons, vampires and witches) have viewed their past, and change the course of their future. Like in The Code, there is an established hierarchical system of witches and a congregation of creatures who seek to stop Diana from making this discovery even if it means war.

Most paranormal/urban fantasy novels skimp on the research. That’s not the case here. It helps that Deborah Harkness has released two non-fiction historical books, and also teaches history at a university level. This understanding of history really shines through.

Overall, this book is enjoyable but it’s very, very long. It’s a bit like the great works of Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens – great characters, wonderful plot, lots of emotions, but boy do you have to work through some parts of it to get there. Listening to this audiobook felt like a marathon. Usually, when only two hours remain to an audiobook, I have to fight myself to turn off the book so I can get some sleep. With this audiobook, at two hours until the end, I had to talk myself into finishing it. It is not surprising that many reviews are positive – with a book you can skip and skim over pages of description. With an audiobook, however, there is no skimming. You have to listen to every single word of that 24 hours. Every word of description. If there was an abridged version available, I’d highly recommend it. As is, I’d still recommend it, but with some reservations. It’s worth a listen, but just know what you’re getting into before you start.

On Narration:

This is the first time I’ve listened to Jennifer Ikeda read an audiobook, and I was impressed. She is particularly good with accents (French, British, and Irish), and has a very naturally expressive voice. Nothing over-the-top, but very believable. Her voice has just the right amount of emphasis to keep you from falling asleep while it’s soft and feminine enough to be consonant with the heroine in A Discovery of Witches.

Other Comments:

This section contains SPOILERS. If you have already listened to this audiobook or if you hate surprises, please click below to continue reading.

This book has something I haven’t seen in a long time: parts with no tension. For example, when Diana goes to France with Matthew to his mother’s estate, we get to listen to her have dinner, go up to her room, go to bed, fall asleep, wake up, eat breakfast, and ride a horse. In extreme detail. The entire time, I kept wondering why the author would want to tell me all this. There had to be a point, right? But the writing wasn’t suggesting any tension. So I kept expecting a surprise. Diana getting food poisoning, attacked in her sleep, falling off a horse, maybe? Surely, I wasn’t listening to how difficult it was to put on those new riding boots or the dialogue between her and Matthew as to how ornery one of the horses had a reputation of being for nothing! I was wrong.

These sorts of scene with no real point just kept popping up in the worst places. Toward the end, for example, we’re getting to the really good stuff – Diana’s about to go back in time with Matthew! Fascinating! Then, for some reason, we get this long scene and conflict between Matthew and a demon about Diana getting a small pox vaccine. In extreme detail. Like the chill from the glass of water Diana was holding as she was being injected. It seems like the point of having that scene was just to have a quote from Thomas Jefferson. Or the scene with Diana and Matthew picking up pizza before going back in time. I understand the point of having your favorite food that you might never have again, or the importance of having that vaccine, but frankly, all these items could have fit in two sentences. They didn’t need scenes. This audiobook should have been 8-12 hours long, like every other good urban fantasy/paranormal audiobook.

And it ends in a cliffhanger. I think I would have given this audiobook a 3 out of 5 had it ended in some sort of a resolution. You can’t have a 600 page book or a 24-hour audiobook and end it in a cliffhanger. That’s just not fair.

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About Me

I am an alter ego and pen name of a 29-year-old attorney who writes and reads - or rather, listens to - urban fantasy and paranormal mystery novels.
Follow me on Twitter: @LostArtAudio
Check me out on GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5005625-dharma-kurlind
Check out the FAQs at the bottom of the site!

Rating System

5 out of 5 - Incredible. So well written it hurts. You should buy this audiobook, listen to it, then listen to it again.

4 out of 5 - Very, very good. It is so good, it'll sit in the back of your mind and make you long for the next in the series.

3 out of 5 - Very good. Entertaining, satisfying and worth a good long listen.

2 out of 5 - Good. Buy it, listen to it, and move on. It's exactly as advertised, and worth the time.

1 out of 5 - Disappointing. You're not going to see this rating on my Blog. If I find an audiobook a 1, I won't review it.

Reviewing Policy & Inquiries

If you are an author, promoter or publisher who would like an audiobook reviewed here, please email me at Dkurlind [at] gmail dot com to work out a time-frame.

Please keep in mind that only audiobooks are reviewed. Also, please keep in mind the genres addressed in this Blog are limited to urban fantasy, urban horror, and paranormal romance, thrillers or mysteries.Related genres are welcome, including young adult, high fantasy, science fiction, high horror, mysteries, thrillers, romance, and suspense. I will not review non-fiction or erotica.

Reviews include published cover art, a spoiler-free summary, available excerpt links, audiobook details, narrator details, and links to other site reviews.All reviews will be posted on this Blog, Amazon.com, Audible.com, Goodreads.com, and Twitter.

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FAQ

Q. Why audiobooks? Are you blind?

If I lose a contact, sure, I'm blind as a bat.In all seriousness, I review audiobooks as opposed to the written book because I don’t own a single one of the many Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Thriller books I review.Instead, I’ve purchased their audio recordings.Shocking just how much money I spent on audible.com over the span of the last year. Why audiobooks?Because my alter ego – the one who has a Social Security number and a driver’s license – is an attorney who spends most of her time reading off a computer or inspecting tons of documents.Also, [shameless plug alert] I’m currently working on my own urban fantasy novel, The Lost Art of Hiding Among the Dead [/spa]. This means I spend 90% of my waking life using my eyes reading.While I love paranormal mysteries, if I spend any more of my time on reading, I might lose my mind as well as my vision. Audiobooks allow me to go through one to three books a week, but while moving, driving, running, or cleaning, instead of crouching over a manuscript.

Q.All your reviews are positive.Do you love every book you listen to?

Hardly! There are tons of books I’ve downloaded that were a waste of time, money and effort and I can think of a few, off the top of my head, that have inspired me to: (a) roll my eyes every 15 minutes; (b) write hate mail (but not send); (c) re-listen to them again spurred by an irrational belief that there must be a plot in there somewhere, I just know it; (d) give up after less than an hour; and (e) demanded my money back. However, in this Review, I choose to operate under the old adage of “if you haven’t anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”Truth is [shameless plug alert], as someone working on a novel myself, The Lost Art of Hiding Among the Dead [/spa], I understand how difficult and time-consuming it is to write a novel.Then consider how difficult it is to find a literary agent, an editor and a publisher, and then become well-read enough to have the novel converted into an audiobook.Even the worst book is a product of blood, sweat, and tears.Fortunately, there are enough wonderful books out there that deserve praise. However, if you're that curious and would like to see my list of awful audiobooks to not download under any cost, email me, and I’ll share, but I refuse to pooh-pooh someone’s life’s work publicly on this blog for the sake of airing out my own frustrations.